Has anyone heard of a small operation called Margins Press? Looks small and sincere, then again they all seem to at first!

CaoPaux

10-16-2008, 07:21 PM

This one? http://www.marginspress.co.za/

Momento Mori

10-16-2008, 07:23 PM

Website is here (http://www.marginspress.co.za/).

MM

Atani

10-16-2008, 07:27 PM

I've been wondering about them as well, but I have not found anything out as of yet.

However, it does seem strange that they have 1 title listed (Devil's Island by Frank de Sales), but according to an author's post on firstwriter who was rejected, "they cannot take on any more new authors at present due to the large amount of work they already have in hand."

I'm also a little worried by their website which appears to be set up more for authors to submit their work than to sell authors' books. Maybe just another small publisher. I'd love to hear what the experienced guys have to say :)

Atani

10-16-2008, 07:29 PM

Oh, sorry, it looks like they have 2 more titles up and coming. Career advice & a beer guide...

MickRooney

10-16-2008, 07:32 PM

Is this the Margins Press you are referring to?

http://www.marginspress.co.za/index.html

According to their about page:
Margins Press is a small independent South African printing press looking to publish unusual books that wouldn’t be considered by larger publishers. We’re looking for the antithesis of the super market block busters, the kinds of works that used to be published to meet smaller market niches.

They have a miniscule catalogue and do not seem to be running very long. Their distribution is through AtlasBooks (owned by Bookmasters, a publishers solutions company) and I can't see anything on the site to suggest they are anything but legitimate. However it would be helpful if they listed their owners and editors. I would suspect they are a very small press and outsourcing much of their editing, design, fulfillment etc to Bookmaster inc.

There is no listing of them in the Bewares and Backround Checks Publisher index. My advise would be to try and contact one of their authors and find out 1. if they are actually part of the ownership of the publisher and 2. if not, what their experiences are of this publisher.

Ultimately, it may be wise to let this one settle and see how they develop over the next six months.

MickRooney

10-16-2008, 08:22 PM

Have taken a look at one of Margin Press' main authors, Frank DeSales, his blogsite and his own website, and there does seem to be a consistency. Both seem to be run and set up by the publishers. Nothing so much extraordinary, but there does seem to be common themes between the publishers website and the DeSales blogsite.

Me thinks, Frank DeSale may very well be Margin Press and have a very large say in the running of the publisher. Ultimately being set up to publish his own books, and he may be expanding into a small press as an afterthought.

The 'Need to get published' byline also worries me a bit! Me thinking this may or may not be a subsidy press, though there is nothing about fees on the publishers website.

brianm

10-16-2008, 09:42 PM

Margins Press has one book by one author that is available for purchase on their website and they claim this about its sales.

<author’s name redacted> is an exciting young South African author whose debut novel <book title redacted> is doing very well.

The author claims the book is also available online.

Answer: You can get <book title redacted> from the following websites: www.amazon.com United States, www.kalahari.net South Africa, www.amazon.co.uk UK & Ireland

However, when I searched Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Devils-Island-Frank-Sales/dp/0620403624/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1224174874&sr=1-4) it shows the book is not being released until April of 2009.

This title has not yet been released.
You may pre-order it now and we will deliver it to you when it arrives.

It doesn’t show up on Kalahari at all and on Amazon.uk (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Devils-Island-Frank-Sales/dp/0620403624/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1224176320&sr=1-2) it shows up with a release date of April 2009 and this…

Currently unavailable.
We don't know when or if this item will be back in stock.

So how is this book doing “very well” if the only place it can be purchased is through a publisher that no one has ever heard of?

A puzzlement. :Huh:

MaryMumsy

10-17-2008, 02:27 AM

Maybe the same Frank de Sales? On the Hill & Hill thread earlier today, someone mentioned a former client/victim of HH by the name of Frank de Sales being published. sorry, don't know how to include the link to the thread.

MM

brianm

10-17-2008, 02:34 AM

Maybe the same Frank de Sales? On the Hill & Hill thread earlier today, someone mentioned a former client/victim of HH by the name of Frank de Sales being published. sorry, don't know how to include the link to the thread.

MM

Post #895 in this thread. (http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12420&page=36)

It could possibly be the same person. Small press would be an understatement.

EDIT: I just noticed this thread was started by the very same person who made the above post. Perhaps that is why he is asking about this publisher.

Mervin.treadway

10-17-2008, 04:43 PM

Apologies for starting the deluge, a simple 'yes' or 'no' would have done!

Yes, I also posted on the CH forum.

I guess the verdict is still out until someone says it took their money and ran.

BTW, my nephew Claude looked up the reg number given and the ownership details come back from the Registrar of SA companies as 'B Allen, D Malcolm, L Swanepoel'. The company has been registered since 1997, paid it's taxes and been in the business of providing published training materials and associated since then.

veinglory

10-17-2008, 05:55 PM

A simple yes or no would not have done very much, methinks. they typical goal of the thread in this forum is to reach some understanding of what kind of entity a press is.

The verdict doesn't depend just one whether actually fraud and theft will occur (lord knows, I hope we are all aiming for a little better than that). It centres more on whether a whole lot of copies of a book are going to get sold.

CaoPaux

10-17-2008, 07:48 PM

The site is registered to Duncan Arthur, who is listed elsewhere (http://www.jazmaonline.com/directory/Default.asp?direct=2) as Director of Margins Press.